Elena's Choice: A Man To Love
by Damonficgirl
Summary: an alternate version of that phonecall from the season 3 finale, only the first few lines of dialogue are the same.


**Elena's Choice - A Man To Love**

**A/N:** I loved the season finale, I love how full of potential it is for season 4, but the Delena shipper in me just had to have a run at that beautiful horrible telephone call and wonder 'what if' so here is my version of Elena's Choice. I hope you enjoy

**Disclaimer:** The Vampire Diaries and its characters are not mine. Julie Plec, Kevin Williamson et al. are amazing. I hope they can forgive me for borrowing a few lines of dialogue at the beginning to set the scene, though really why would they care, they are epic brilliant masterminds and I'm a fanfic writer with a tumblr account lol.

"Hey where are you?" Damon asked, trying not to sound as hopeful and desperate as he felt. He just wanted to see her one more time, hold her hand, touch her lips, breath her sent. The one thing he feared more than losing her to Stefan was dying alone and here he was, alone, and dying.

"Matt's taking me home," Elena admitted, tears welling. She hated herself for having to say those words. She hated herself for hurting him again.

"To Stefan," he surmised, the choice had been made. Maybe it was better than he was dying. Living with her choice would be worse than this.

"Not just to Stefan, Damon. To Tyler to Caroline," he had to understand.

"No I get it…So, since I'm possibly a dead man can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah of course," she would do anything for him.

"If it was just down to him and me, and you had to make a choice , who got the goodbye? who would it be?" He didn't want to ask because he didn't want to live or die with the answer but he needed to know.

"I love him Damon. He came into my life at a time when I needed someone and I fell for him instantly. I owe him this. But I wish there had been more time, maybe, maybe then it would have been you," he had to know. He had to understand.

"It should have been me."

"What do you mean?"

"I never told you this, I don't know why I'm telling you now, it's selfish, but I want you to know. I wish you could remember… When I first came to town, when I was still eating people and hanging around waiting for Katherine to get out of that tomb. I met you," Damon couldn't help himself, anything to keep her on the phone, to hold on to the last thing that connected him to Elena. To his love.

"What do you mean?" Elena was confused.

"I saw you, waiting for you parents to pick you up that night. It should have been me Elena, I should have saved you from that car."

"But you didn't," she didn't mean to sound cold. Part of her wished too, despite the knowledge that the Damon that existed that night would not have healed her like Stefan had, he wasn't ready for her. If only it hadn't taken him so long to be ready to be with her, and for her to accept that he had changed.

"And I will regret that for the rest of my life." She could hear the smile in his voice.

"Don't. I'm glad Stefan saved me, and I'm glad that I got to know you slowly, that I got to see you change. You've become the most amazing person Damon. When Stefan went back to Klaus you stuck by me. You saved me Damon. You saved me again and again."

"So why don't I get the goodbye?" It was pathetic but he couldn't help himself. He was a dying man.

"Because Stefan and I were a real couple, I told him I loved him and I made him promises. I have to honour that. But I love you too Damon. If I have to say goodbye to someone today it has to be Stefan, but if I have to choose someone to be with tomorrow, it would be you. I'm sorry we'll never get that chance."

"It's my fault, I made you forget."

"Forget what?" Elena asked, the suspicion rising in her voice. She had wondered about this before. There had been times when she hadn't had her necklace, when little things had happened, she had wondered.

"That night, on the highway," Damon explained. "You were so beautiful. So innocent. So sweet and full of life. I was a horrible monster back then, I know it, maybe I still am, but I didn't hurt you Elena. I made you forget but I didn't hurt you. I couldn't take that innocence out of your eyes. I don't think Stefan would have either, if he'd met you before the accident. In my darkest most selfish days, even though I didn't really know you I wanted you to be happy. "

"You have made me happy Damon, you have. You make me laugh even when the world is falling down. I can't imagine how I would have survived the last few months without you. Damon I have to go but I love you, I need you to hold on to that. I love you."

"Thank you," he replied, sincerely and wholeheartedly thankful, because that was all he really wanted now, to die knowing that he had that much, that he had become a man she could love. At first he almost forgot to say the words himself, he had said them before, felt them so powerfully a million times, how could she doubt them? But this might be his last chance. "I love you too Elena."

"I know, goodbye Damon," Elena whispered and hung up so that he wouldn't have to hear her sobbing.


End file.
